


Spider-Man Earth-252525

by Mattmanganon



Series: Earth-252525 [2]
Category: DC Extended Universe, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reimagining, Gen, Project Cadmus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23953750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mattmanganon/pseuds/Mattmanganon
Summary: Earth-252525 is one of the many universes in the multiverse where multiple different universes converged together. Heroes and villains from all over exist together.When Peter Parker picks a fight with Rhino one day, he has no idea what the hell he's got himself in for.
Series: Earth-252525 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726822
Kudos: 2





	1. Awakening

It was just another day in New York, 18 year old Peter Parker had been enjoying another day of being the Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man. 2 lost cats, a kids balloon rescued, 2 people pulled out of the Hudson. Now he was getting ready to head to his date with MJ that evening. As he swung down the middle of Broadway, he saw an old friend wrecking everything. The Rhino, Aleksei Sytsevich, a petty thug that had accidentally gotten himself locked in a suit of tactical war-armour and subjected to ungodly experiments, against his will, designed to pump his strength to beyond human. Peter may have felt bad for him if he wasn't such a jerk about it. "Yo, Alex!" He called, waving.

"BACK OFF, BUG!" Rhino roared as he smashed a car. "AND SOMEONE SHUT OFF THAT DAMN RINGING!" Spider-man landed on a Lamp-Post and pretended to pick his ear clean with his pinkie.

"How many times do i have to tell you people. ARACHNIDS AREN'T BUGS!" He called. He then jumped over Rhino as he ran into the lamp, knocking it over as Peter jumped down to , i'll stop the ringing by answering the phone. CLICK! Alexei!" He called in a fake, thick russian old woman accent. "Alexei this is Babushka! Stop hitting the nice Spider-Man and come home to eat your Kotlet and potatoes!" Peter called.

"YOU LEAVE BABUSHKA OUT OF THIS!" He grabbed his head. "AND STOP THAT RINGING!" He screamed, before charging at Spider-Man again. Peter jumped, shooting webs out to grab a nearby flag and landed on Rhino's shoulders, wrapping it around his head. Rhino grabbed wildly at it as Peter began covering his head in webbing to hold the flag in place and blind the beast. Spider-senses told him of the incoming wildly swiping hands forcing him to jump up and web both hands together, before swinging himself between Rhino's legs, pulling his hands through and flipping the brute on his back.

"You know, at some point, you're going to stop trying to come after me." He said. Rhino began screaming loudly in muffled Russian. "Come on, shhhhhhhh, let ol' Uncle Spidey tell you about the rabbits, big guy." He said as he continued to blast more and more webbing at his face. Finally, he felt something around his leg. Looking down he saw it was the massive hands of Rhino. "Oops" He managed to eep out, before getting lifted, smacked against the street, then a second hand grabbing him and him being forced to take Rhino's entire weight as the giant got to his feet. Peter let out a loud scream, before Rhino managed to pull the webbing and flag away from his face.

"SPIDER! STOP THAT RINGING OR I KILL YOU NOW!" He screamed, putting the squeeze on his trapped prey. Spider-Man grunted as he tried to get any leverage he could on the hulking figure, but the utter unbridled rage in his eyes, even more angry than usual.

"Wow, calm down, buddy. Take a few deep..." He grunted as the beast's vicegrip on him tightened. "CALMING BREATHS!" He wheezed. "TAKE A CHILL-PILL! CHILLPILL!" He wheezed even louder. Rhino then threw the Wallcrawler into a car. Peter started to recover and shake himself off just in time to see Rhino charging at him, full pelt, he felt the tusk pierce his stomach and then it all went... Wet...

Peter was suddenly in a large tank of what looked like water, but he was utterly disorientated. He couldn't tell where he was or... What was going on. He could hear something... Muffled noises... Talking through the water? Maybe screaming? Then a gunshot, he knew that sound anywhere and was able to give his muscles just enough of a push to dodge out of the way. Another bullet and another, then the glass around him completely gave way and he collapsed onto the floor, coughing up what seemed like half of the Hudson flooding from his lungs. He tried to get up, but everything seemed strange. Everything was a total blur. He saw another smashed tube with some stumbling out of the room. He couldn't make anything out, just the person fighting their way out and more gunshots. "Wait..." He coughed. "Help..." He weakly managed to wheeze out.

"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" Called a womans voice "Lockdown the base and destroy both of those things and any others that he left." He felt a boot kick him over onto his front, he instinctively reached up a hand and tried to shoot webbing in the guys face just as the greyish blob in his vision tried to shoot him. He then noticed that his web-shooters were gone. But, his muscle-memory was still there and as he pressed on his palm, a stream of what looked like web-fluid shot from his wrist and into the greyish blob's... What he assumed to be it's face. "If either ID's me, we're finished, i'm leaving this to you." The woman called.

"With pleasure, sir." A mans voice giggled with sadistic glee. "You get the other one, i've got this one."

"And that's my cue..." Peter coughed. "Exit, stage right..." He stumbled to his feet, at this point, noticing that he was naked. "Uh oh..." He was then knocked off of his feet as he was hit by a bolt of lightning. He convulsed heavily and screamed in pain, before rolling along the floor, he winced as some of the broken glass dug into him. "E... Electro? That you?" He called. "I know that voice anywhere, you big nerd!" He called.

"Oh, spidey. Nice to see that the old bastard managed to get at least one thing right with you." Electro's voice sighed, before Peter's eyesight seemed to get better, just in time to be hit by another bolt of lightning and sent flying again.

"Aaaaaaah." Peter managed to struggle to his feet. Another bolt came at him and this time, his Spider-Senses were in good enough shape to tell him roughly where to jump to. He hit the ceiling and stuck to it, looking up... Or down, his orientation was still all over the place. He was... He was in some kind of laboratory. High tech as well, stainless steel, he could see a number of tubes with others in them, but he couldn't make out anything. Electro grinned, before blasting him with more lightning, Peter jumped out of the way and shot Electro with few quick shots from his webbing. He then jumped towards the door and quickly dodged a few more bolts of lightning from Electro, before running down the corridor, upside-down on the ceiling. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he was just trying to get away. As he blindly ran, he reached a service door and jumped through, webbing the door closed on his way out. He looked down at his hands, he realized that he now had what looked like... Organic web-spinners. Funky... What the hell had happened? He needed to get home. Figure out what the hell had been going on. He then realized that... He had a beard... Long one at that, it was scraggly and awful, like he had never cut or maintained it ever.

"Well that's just rude. Keeping me captive and not even having the good common courtesy to give me a trim." He grunted, making his way up the stairs. He burst out of the door and stepped out into the blazing sunshine. The sounds of the world hitting him like a freight-train. Helicopters, cars, planes, birds, footsteps... A literal freight-train, the noises of the world blaring his ears as if he were newborn experiencing the world for the first time. He looked up to see the sun just creeping over the horizon to herald the start of a new day. He needed to regroup, rethink everything... Maybe finally take up that offer from the Justice League that he had been ignoring all of these years and use their resources to figure out where he had been, who had taken him, what they wanted him for, what they had succeeded in and... Well, the other bazillion questions blaring in his head as he quickly set off to try and grab some clothes before figuring out the most important question right now... Where the hell was he and how long had he been gone?


	2. Deeper and Deeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter finds out that he might have been gone from the world just a little longer than he thought.

It had been a hell of a treck back to Manhattan. Without his suit, he daren't risk getting photo'd swinging and wall-crawling. He had found that the place he had escaped was located just outside of Yonkers, upstate. Having to hitchhike and risk swinging at night in order to get back to his apartment. He didn't have his keys or anything on him, he looked at his mailslot. The good news was that it wasn't overflowing, the bad news was that it now had the name "A Jones" on it. He had clearly been gone a while... Maybe head over to Aunt May's and check it out there. He was about to turn around and walk out of the foyer as he heard footsteps "Hey, Pete!" Called a voice. He stopped dead. He didn't recognize the voice. But his spider-senses were calm. He turned around and looked to see a woman with red hair stood in the stairwell. "Pete! Peter Parker, isn't it?" She asked.

"Ummm... Yeah, it's me." He laughed, brushing his shoulder-length, scraggly hair.

"Damn, you look a mess..." She winced a little looking at him head-on.

"Thanks, you look great." He replied, trying desperately to figure out who the hell she was. They stood awkwardly together for about 10 seconds as both seemed to stand waiting for the other to make the first move.

"You... Here for your mail again?" she asked. Peter looked at her puzzled. "You NEED to update your address with the Bank, they keep sending me your statements." She opened up the post box and began going through her mail. Peter was now even more confused. There was a number of explainations as to what was happening and none of them he liked. Maybe in his absence, someone had stepped into his shoes and pretended to be him... Chameleon maybe? Maybe Osborn had genetically altered someone to look like him? There was too many questions that needed answering, but right now, he couldn't arouse suspicion.

"Say, did you get that note i left?" He asked. "the one with my new address on it?" The woman turned around.

"Yeah of course." She replied. He grinned, this might be easier than he thought.

"It's just that i'm not sure i got the right address, mind if i see it?" He asked.

"Yeah." She took out her phone. Peter made a quick note that it wasn't one he had seen before. Looked a lot more advanced than the ones he was used to seeing, as well as a new operating system that he wasn't familiar with. That didn't bode well, he may have been gone for over a year at this point. "704 Broadway, Apartment 21-B" She chirped.

"Yup, i was afraid i had told you 21-A. That's the one I was looking at, but someone sniped it from under me.

"What about that fiance of yours? i bet she had a few words to say on it?" She asked. The blood drained from Peters face as he nearly passed out.

"Y... Y-y..." He gulped. "Yeah, MJ was great with it." stabbing wildly in the dark and hoping that MJ had said yes to his proposal.

"Yes, Mary-Jane, that was her name. That was almost awkward for a second." The woman shrugged with a grin.

"Yup... Almost..." She looked him over, before putting her hands over her mouth.

"Oh no... You didn't..." She looked worried. "I mean, with the beard and everything..." It took Peter a few seconds to get what she was insinuating.

"Oh, no. Me and MJ are still together. I'm... On my way to a fancy dress party. MJ did these up for me. I'm going as The Wolfman. I gotta go and will get that mail next time." he realized he couldn't take the mail. The imposter would be onto him, if it wasn't onto him already. "Before i go." He turned back to her. "What's your thoughts on Spider-Man's latest hit?" He asked. "I caught it on the net and it was inspiring." He said.

"The guy is looking out for us." She smiled, before pulling down her shirt over her shoulder and reveiling a tattoo on her shoulder of a heart with Spider-Man's face in it. He was utterly flattered.

"That is soooo... cool..." His smile trailed off as he saw a catalogue in her hands. "SUMMER SALE FOR 2023" But.... But it was 2016... 7 years... He had been gone for 7 years? His stomach turned over on itself "See you another time..." He called, walking out the door and onto the streets again. He immediately ducked into an alley next to her appartment building as he felt his stomach decide that whatever was in, needed to not be so. For the first time since he had been bitten by that spider, he lost his lunch. The details were most unpleasant, but suffice is to say that he stood there staring at the pile that was previously a hot-dog he had managed to beg off of someone. He decided that there was only one thing for it. He needed to know what the hell was going on.

****

Peter sat in the Library, logging onto one of the computers, he steadied himself, he needed to get information on what this guy was doing with his life. Well, the only obvious sign of nefarious activity was a bunch of news articles by one John Jonah Jameson. Not exactly a surprise there. Apart from that, he'd been keeping to himself, hadn't joined the Justice League, hadn't really been doing much outside of New York... Apartently, there was a Statue of him shaking hands with Superman on the corner of 5th and East 23rd, dedicated to his "Heroic and outstanding actions" during the Battle of Manhattan when an alien race called the "Skrulls" had tried to stage an invasion of the city. Replacing people in order to better set up their invasion force. Wow, this imposter had ALSO been replaced and had been rescued by Captain America himself. "Awww, he got to meet Cap?" He groaned, before seeing a librarian put a finger to her lips. He waved a sorry, before going back to his reading. Everything he read made him like this guy more and more. There didn't seem to be anything close to a blemish against him. It's like someone had replaced him with a copy so perfect that... Well, he was still fighting the good fight. He then decided to search up this civilian side. Finding his social media, he began to scroll down the list of things that had happened to him. Most of them were clearly cover stories for his work as Spider-man... Then... Peter's heart went through the floor. 1 year after he had been taken... The memorial... His old girlfriend, Gwen Stacy... Spider-Man had failed... To... He got up and went to the bathroom, partially because he didn't want anyone to see him cry, but mainly because he had the sneaking suspicion that he was going to throw up again. After half an hour, he came back and sat at the computer, he noticed that he had spent half of his timeslot doing something rather unmanly... But he just couldn't believe she was gone. He wiped his eyes again. Right... This guy seemed to be just as destroyed by her death as him. He even correlated that Spider-Man had taken a 6 month absence, barely doing anything during that time. Jameson took the credit for his departure.

Right... This guy seemed on the level, but what about his friends? Well, taking a quick look into what had happened to them. Otto Octavius, his old mentor from before he became Spider-Man. Peter had strong memories of their first battle after he became Doctor Octopus, but after that, he seemed to be getting better. Well, looks like Otto fell off the wagon, had broken out of a maximum-security psychiatric facility and gone on the run. He had had a couple of run-ins with Spider-Man, but had kept mostly to himself, consorting with other members of the Supervillain community. Vulture was 3 years into a 5 year sentance, Shocker was at large, Green Goblin, well, he was the guy that killed Gwen... After that, Norman seemingly hung up his purple tights and had gone into Politics... Oh god, he was running for Senator and was very vocal about his plans to run for President at some point soon... "Ewwwww..." Doctor Connors... Was completely off the Radar. Connors had helped him through his first few weeks as Spider-Man, but he didn't realize that Connors was really only after a sample of his blood. They had fought, but Connors had gotten away and... Apartently, he was STILL at large. Had popped up in Gotham City a few years back and fought Batman, but apart from that, he'd been quiet. Electro was... Missing... No he wasn't, he was working for the bastard that had done this to him. Rhino was still at large... He quickly looked into the battle with Rhino that he remembered before his capture. There was little information, apartently, he had won, but was badly wounded... Maybe... Maybe that was when they were switched. Rhino MUST have been in on it. He needed to find him. But how? He knew Rhino had worked with Chameleon in the past. This HAD to be some kind of scam that the two had put together. He got up. He needed to hit the streets, find out where Rhino was and bring his game to an end. Getting up, he gave the Librarian a thumbs-up and walked outside. As he made his way down the front steps towards the street, a car shot past him, with a police car in hot pursuit. He then heard that sound. That sound he would know from anywhere.

*FWIP!*

He then saw him. Spider-Man, sailing gracefully through the air, down the street after the speeding car. Definitely NOT Chameleon, that guy was NEVER this graceful. He ran immediately over to an alleyway and ducked in, his breath was shallow, heavy. He needed to figure out what the HELL was going on. He needed to call someone? Rushing over to a payphone, he took out some of the loose-change he had left from his begging. Pushed it in and stopped... Who to call? Aunt May... There was no way he could put her through that... The Justice League? Not until he had more info, this imposter would easily be able to convince them that he was crazy. MJ... Well, if she was marrying him, there was a chance that she was in on it. He didn't want to entertain that thought, but it was a chance nonetheless and one he couldn't afford to take... He then remembered something... He punched in a number and the phone started to ring. Every ring in his ear was a stake in his heart. He didn't know if he WANTED them to answer. He had had this number for a long time, but had never used it because it was a one-time only and he wanted to save it for if things went REALLY downhill. He was at least relieved that they had kept the phone and the promise. Finally, the ringing stopped and the audible blip of a phone being answered was heard.

"Hello? Peter?"

"Hey, Doc... It's bad and i have literally no-where else to turn to."

"Not even May?"

"Especially not her..." He replied.

"And not even Webhead?"

"He's... Part of the problem." Peter sighed.

"Pier 36, Warehouse #8. Come alone." The phone hung up.


	3. 2 men with 8 appendages each.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter meets with his former mentor and they go investigating the mysterious bunker that he broke out of.

"My appartment had someone else living there, saying i had moved and was going to marry my girlfriend and then i went to the library to figure things out and then... I saw him... And then i called you." Peter finished. "I... I don't know what to do..." He burried his face in his hands. "I... I just needed to tell someone else who won't immediately think i'm crazy." He looked across the small room to see the middle-aged, fat man sat in an armchair, a pudding-bowl haircut adorning his head... Oh, and the 4 large robotic tentacles coming from a harness on his back.

"Well, Peter, i'm not a psychiatrist. I am no more qualified to diagnose you as crazy than i am to tell you where you went for 7 years and how you came back with Spider-Mans powers. But i will let you know that, i am NOT the mustache twirling maniac the media makes me out to be." He sighed. "So you have nothing to fear from being here. I am a man who wants to make peoples lives better through the medium of Science. I am a reasonable man who was forced to do unreasonable things by unreasonable people. If i need to rob a couple of banks, raid some Oscorp and Lextech science labs and accidentally... almost crash the Watchtower in the process, then so be it. I want to help, but i NEED money and equipment to do it. I am going to do everything in my power to help you." A tentacle slowly slithered over to the coffee machine and gripped a freshly made cup, handing it to Peter. "So, what do you remember about the lab?" He asked.

"Just... Looked like a... Laboratory. My vision was bad, i don't remember anything else. Electro was working with them." He rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah, never liked that guy. Then again, i hate people with problems that don't want to help themselves." He sighed.

"The weirdest part..." Peter looked at his hands. "It's... It's like i've ALWAYS been Spider-Man. Like... I was on my way over here and i couldn't help but... You know, try swinging. It was like second nature." He shook his head "I... I dunno Doc, i'm just coming to pieces." He said, Peter was visibly shaking.

"Calm down, dear boy." Otto smiled. "So... You missed a lot then." He said. "Quite glad, i saw some of those unflattering photo's you... Other you took of me for the Bugle and i wasn't best pleased. Tell you what, get some sleep, we'll go raid it in the morning. If this is some off-the-books government facility, it's likely to have top-level tech." He grinned sinisterly. He then looked at Peter. "Oh, and it might answer some questions for you, too." He shrugged. Peter couldn't help but laugh. Otto was a good man at heart, but that darker side of his... If he had just a little more care about the consequences of his actions, or even just some basic respect for the law, he may have never become seen as a supervillain. "Before we go, can i get a sample of your blood?" He asked. "It might give me a clue as to what they did to you." He said. Peter was hesentant. After all, He knew Otto was right, it would answer some questions, but it was just as likely that Otto would figure out what he had been Spider-Man this whole time.

"Sure." He answered. He was going to get absolutely no-where by refusing to trust anyone. Otto quickly fetched a syringe and took some samples. "Should be done by tomorrow afternoon." He smiled, before a robotic tentacle threw him a blanket.

"Get some sleep, tomorrow, answers." Otto said, before going into the back room.

****

It was a crisp, chilly morning, Peter had decided to keep the beard and long hair, better to make sure that, should Spider-Man catch them, he'd be less likely to recognize him. Well, as they got outside, they looked straight at the chariot that was to take them to their destination. "In the immortal words of Luke Skywalker... WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK!" He grimaced.

"She won't make it 0.5 past lightspeed, but she will get us there unnoticed. Also, good thing to say to the maniacal supervillain who's helping you out and spent all night working on your blood sample and... A few other things..." The bags under Otto's eyes were unmistakable. Then again, he looked like a man who hadn't slept in a month.

"Yeah, because nobody thinks that Peter Parker and Doctor Octopus are going to be cruising to Yonkers in a van that looks like it lost a fight with a Golgothan." He groaned.

"Actually, my former protege-" Otto oppened the van door and stepped in, as he closed the door, suddenly, he looked like a soccer-mom on her way to fetch the kids. "Nifty, right? Not gonna lie, stole this tech from Quentin, but only because he tried to screw me on that last job. So i took one of his little drones." He giggled. "This tech could be great for training doctors, police, structural engineers... But let's face facts, this gets released, it's immediately scooped up by the military and they are, quite literally, the last people that should be using it."

"Can't argue with that." He walked around the other side and climbed in. "So, lemme guess, i look like your son?" He asked. Otto then pressed a button on the console in the middle.

"Now you look like my tennis coach." He smiled. "No homo?" He asked. Peter immediately backed against the car door. "Oh yeah, 7 years. You missed that one, was one of those internet jokes. It was pretty killer!" Otto laughed, before setting off. The trip was uneventful, they listened to Jameson's latest Podcast. "Oh yeah, battle of New York. Was a hell of a lightshow. Even earned me some good guy points when I teamed up with Webhead to take down his fake counterpart. Hehe, looks like i'm doing it again." He laughed. The rest of the drive to Yonkers was uneventful. As they stepped out, Peter immediately recognized the area.

"Yeah, this is it." He said. Otto got out and walked towards the door that Peter motioned to. It was a large, rusted metal door with "CAUTION, 50,000 VOLTS. OPENING THIS BOX WILL RESULT IN DEATH AND A $500 FINE!" written on it. "Seems like overkill." Pete responded. Otto's tentacle slowly slithered to it and touched it, then pressed into it.

"Well, that was a lie." Otto sighed, before opening it with his bare hand, inside seemed to just be a regular junction box. "This is also a lie" Otto said as his goggles lit up. "This is all fake, no electricity running through it, except a few servo's behind the walls." His tentacles punched into the wall and Otto stood for a second with his goggles flashing in a way that would have given a lesser man a seizure. Suddenly, the door seemed to shake and open, revealing the steps that Peter vaguely remembered, although, this time, it was pitch-black. Otto's tentacles lit up and shone down into the darkness. "Oh my, looks like they left in a hurry." He began to descend into the darkness, the place looked gutted. Peter took the lead afterwards in order to lead them back the way he had come. It was a blur and every corridor looked the same. They stopped for a minute. 

"Smell that?" Asked Peter. Otto sniffed.

"Smoke." Otto replied. They rounded a corner to find a room filled to the brim with burned out computers. "Damn..." Otto sighed, making his way over to the computers. "Gasoline fire. No way i'm pulling anything off of any of these hard-drives." He groaned. He then flicked his coat back and 4 small octo-bots dropped to the floor "Go find us something to use." He said to them as they scuttled in all different directions. Peter walked over towards the lab he had broken out of. Nothing. Just an empty room. He scouted around close to the floor.

"This is it!" Peter called. He then saw something reflect off of the light. He picked up a small shard of glass. It must have been from his tube. "Maybe we can pull something off of this?" He asked. An octobot then pulled the shard out of his hand and placed it in a storage tank on its back. Peter got up and looked around, seeing another Octobot pulling a bullet fragment out of the wall behind where his tank had been. "Good job." He called to it. The Octobot took no notice of him. "Say, Doc, maybe you should make your Octobots more friendly? Might help people more?" He suggested.

"Alright... Well, it's great you called, just have a few questions for you... Nah, wait till you get in." Otto finished, before pressing a button on his goggles. "Great news, Pete. Rhino's coming in tomorrow. You should be able to ask him then."

"WOW, you're teaming up with Rhino for a job?" He asked.

"Heavens no." Otto laughed. "No, i'm helping him with his suit problems. See, his suit was surgically grafted to his body and then he was forcably grown to make sure he could never take it off. Of course, it causes him ungodly amounts of pain. So, i'm helping him with trying to develop an anti-formula."

"Wow, you really are a man of the people." Peter smiled. "And you're sure he'll answer some questions?"

"Oh, i know that 7 years ago, he was a rough, tough, unstoppable murdermachine, but i think he's come a long way." Otto's goggles lit up. "Oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh. Come on, little one." He cooed as an octobot crawled towards him, he picked it up and opened the hatch. "Show me the goods." He picked up a memory-stick. "With any luck, this is the goods. Or at least, it might have a name and start leading us in the right direction." Peter nodded.

"Thanks, Otto." He smiled, weakly. Things were starting to look up, he had his insane former mentor calling in another maniac in order to get him information on an imposter who had been living his life for the last 7 years, one of his closest, childhood friends had died and he hadn't been able to mourn her, oh, and the imposter was going to be marrying his Girlfriend.

Life was good for Peter right now.

The trip back was just as uneventful as the trip to. Although Peter wasn't particularly looking forward to getting back. He had a sneaking, inescapable feeling that the answers that he was seeking were more... Well, that they were far less desirable than the answers he was hoping for. And even if he did get rid of this imposter. What was he going to do with the fake? And how was he going to slip back into his old life? It had been 7 years? Would MJ still be interested in him? Maybe she would prefer the fake? What he did know was that, after this, he was going to need some SERIOUS counselling.


	4. The Story of Kaine and Abel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter meets with Rhino again and Otto uncovers some disturbing truths.

Peter had been in this exact position before. Staring down the horn of Rhino, although, this time, it was nice that Rhino WASN'T trying to kill him. Although it might have been the numerous robotic tentacles holding him down. Otto was suspended above Rhino, typing away on a computer as it monitored Alexei's vitals. "So... Mr Rhino..." Peter began.

"Why's the pipsqueak talking?" Rhino asked Otto. Otto looked at Peter, then looked back at the computer.

"This is Peter Parker. He's got some questions for you. If you want my help, you will answer them as best as you can." Otto replied.

"You are little man who take pictures of Spider-Man?" He asked. "Ask your questions. I will answer." Peter swallowed, then looked Rhino in the eyes.

"7 years ago, you had a fight with Spider-Man. I was shooting photo's of the scene. You were complaining about a ringing noise."

"да." He replied. "Yes. I remember... The pain was something new that i've never felt before..."

"What happened after you were caught?" He asked. Rhino moved a little in his restraints.

"I was not caught, i was defeated!" He grunted.

"Stillness and patience or nothing will be accomplished." Otto cooed to Rhino.

"Did anything unusual happen on your trip to the Raft?" He asked. Rhino settled back down.

"Nothing unusual." He sighed. "Wait... Usually, they hose me down before cleaning blood from my suit... This time, they did it after... Nothing else i can think of." Peter nodded. That didn't answer any of his questions, but it did narrow down that Rhino had nothing to do with it.

"And did you notice anything to do with Spider-Man and what happened with him?" He asked. Rhino winced as the machines around him whirred to life and injected something into him.

"Nothing... He was dragged away to the vet." He laughed.

"Maybe... And did you spot me in any of this?" He asked.

"I don't even know what you looked like back then." Rhino sighed.

"And what about the rumours that you were working with The Chameleon?" Peter asked. It was unlikely that Chameleon had replaced him, but it didn't hurt to ask.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked. "At the time, me and Chameleon were not on speaking terms. Bastard tried to sell me out to S.H.I.E.L.D. for a reduced sentance. I vowed i would crush him under my heel the next time i get my hands on." At that point a splint was shoved into his mouth.

"Alright, bite down, because this will hurt."

"I am used to pain..." Rhino spat through the wooden plank between his teeth. An electric current started to go through him, Peter watched his muscles fluctuate as he started to writhe and groan.

"Peter, maybe you should take a walk?" Otto said as Rhino tore straight through one of his restraints. 2 more tentacles wrapped around the arm and held it down.

"Mind if i borrow your lab?" He asked. Otto held up a hand and waved him off. Peter would take that as a yes, he headed into the back room. As the door closed, he heard a crashing sound. He then looked around the lab and began grabbing some materials. If he was going to take down the fake, he was going to need a Spider-Costume. And if he could rope Otto into it, he should be able to do this. Things seemed to simplify themselves as he sat making a suit. This one was looking more like his first suit he ever made. An oversized hoodie that he'd cut the arms off of and sprayed his Spider symbol onto it. He also had a balaclava that he'd sewn the signature eyes onto. He sat back and looked at it. "Yup, if i was a man who had replaced Spider-Man and succeeded in tricking even his Girlfriend into thinking it was him for 7 years, i would take one look at a guy in this and go crying back to momma..." He sighed. "Oh i think my pink bunny slippers just ran for cover..." He pulled his eyelids down in frustration. There was another loud crashing sound from the other room, then even more crashing, before what sounded like an explosion. He quickly rushed into the other room, seeing Otto lying in a heap of broken tentacles and a large Rhino shaped hole in the wall. "DOC!" He ran over to Otto and helped pull him up.

"Oooooh, thank you, m'boy." He grunted as he was pulled back onto his feet. "Well, i think it's safe to say that the proceedure was... Unsuccessful." He got up and looked at the hole in the wall. "Also, i think it's time for a change of residents. Webhead will be able to track him back here within the hour. Come on, we'll grab your test results and a few more things, then we are outta here." He said. "Help me pack, would you?"

"Sure thing, doc." Peter replied, walking over to one of the computers. Otto pressed his goggles to look at the results of the test. "So, what should i grab first? Anything irreplacable?" He looked at a desk and saw that his "Worlds Best Scientist" mug he got him for his birthday 2 years ago... 9 years ago was still there. Looked like it had been shattered and superglued a few times, but Peter felt a little more heartwarmed by the situation. "This?" He asked, grabbing it. He looked back at Otto who was stood, mouth agape, his goggles were flashing different colours and Otto's facial expression seemed to be changing just as fast. "Doc?" He asked. Otto pulled his goggles up and looked Peter over with his own eyes.

"My... My god..." He put his hand over Peters face. "Down to the most minute detail..." He pulled the goggles back down. "Facial recognition software and EVERYTHING!" He laughed. "Dear god, whoever made you..." He grabbed Peter's face under his chin, fingers and thumb on either cheek. "Is an ARTIST..." His smile was from ear to ear. "NO!!! Focus, Otto. Be the doctor you always wanted to be. Ahem... Peter... You may want to take a seat."

"Ummm, aren't we in a hurry?" Peter asked.

"Yes... But you might want to be sitting down for what i have to say." Peter looked at Otto. This wasn't his usual behavior.

"It isn't the big C is it?" He asked. Radioactive spider-blood might have been the death of him. Otto's face grimaced.

"Um... Not in the way you think..." He replied. A tentacle pulled a chair up for him to sit down in and he did so. "Peter, i have... I have no idea how to even begin telling you this, so i'm going to come straight out with it." He took a deep breath. "You... Aren't Peter Parker!" He said. Peter's first response was to laugh. He didn't know why he laughed, it seemed like the appropriate response. Maybe it was a joke and he wasn't serious, but he knew it was. Part of him saw this as a Schrodingers Cat situation. Whilst the comment was still hanging in the air, it was neither true, nor false, until Otto confirmed it. "I can only assume you are some kind of clone." And then the penny dropped.

"What?" He asked. He wasn't angry, he wasn't surprised, his tone was surprisingly neutral. Otto walked over to his computer and pulled up the analysis.

"See these DNA markers, You share a lot with Peter, but these ones are different." Peter breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it.

"Well, of course, i mean, look at this" He said, showing Otto his wrist-spinners "That's NOT normal." He laughed. "You had me worried for a sec there."

"Peter, you're correct about that," Otto began, his voice raised. "But look at these DNA markers. They ARE yours and look at the analysis... Your bodies cells are all less than 18 months old. There is NO way that you have existed for longer than that." Peter sat down, his hands were shaking again.

"But... But that's not... Not possible..." He said, grabbing his own face. "I'm ME! I remember EVERYTHING!!!!" He roared. "I remember learning to ride a bike, i remember attending your classes, i remember joining you at your lab and helping you build those arms, i remember HOLDING MY UNCLE AS HE DIED IN MY ARMS!!! I REMEMBER WHEN I..." The moment flashed before Peters eyes. Burglar stood in front of him, the fear in his eyes, them rolling into his head and Peter stood over him, powerless to help him as spit seemed to boil from his mouth as he gurgled his last death throes as the heart-attack took him. "I... I am me... I think i am, therefore i am." He sobbed.

"Peter, you ARE real. You are as real a person as me or Alexei. You walk, you talk, you have feelings, but you are NOT Peter Parker. He's been out there for the last 7 years, completely unaware that someone has stolen his DNA and cloned him." Otto then looked back at the computer. "Wait... What's this?" his tentacles carried him over and he looked it over. "Wait... Oh my god, if it's what i thin... Dear god... Peter, we need to get far away from each other right now." He said, his tentacles lashed out, grabbing absolutely everything and moving it over to the back door. Peter got up and grabbed Otto by the shoulders.

"DOC!" He shouted. "I NEED ANSWERS!!!" Otto looked him over, then had the arms lift him over to the computer and he pointed. Peter walked around and looked at it. It was a DNA sequence. "Otto, I don't have time to beat about the bush. Tell me what this means?" He asked.

"Look" Otto pressed a few buttons. "These DNA sequences cancel each other out, but they create a cypher sequence. Look what happens when you decrypt the cypher." He pressed a few more buttons, the computer quickly extrapolated all of the codes, decrypted them and it put them in a row.

"Property of Project C.A.D.M.U.S.? What the hell is Project C.A.D.M.U.S.?" Peter asked.

"Not surprised you don't know, they're a enigma, wrapped in a mystery, coated with rumours and deep fried in a paranoid conspiracy. They don't exist, you can't find information about them anywhere, not even darkweb. I have an algorithm constantly searching for mentions, but anytime anyone mentions them, their site is gone in a matter of minutes. If they made you, then they are, undoubtedly, tracking you." Otto looked legitimately scared. Peter hadn't seen him like this since he had first saw him lose his mind all those years ago.

"If they are tracking me, then why haven't they caught me yet? They've had about 48 hours to find me and they still haven't." Otto stopped. "If they can silence anyone on the internet in a matter of minutes, then i think it's safe to say that, if i had a tracker in me, that they could have nabbed us at any time. Down in the lab would have been a perfect ambush point." Otto seemed to be mentally weighing his options.

"I DON'T KNOW, maybe they wanted you to get away to lead you to high priority targets. Maybe they wanted to replace you with Spider-Man..." He stopped. "Yes... Yes it all makes sense. What if Spider-Man is a criminal? What if he was a rapist or serial murderer before he put on the costume?" He asked. "Government finds out who he is, but uh oh, he's Ted Bundy. Can't let his secret out without backlash, can't kill him without a backlash, can't arrest him without a backlash. But Peter Parker is a straight A student, you've never got so much as a parking ticket, you're close to him. They clone Peter, give him all of Spider-Man's powers. You replace the real Peter, then, Spider-Man let's his guard down around you, you kill him and step into the shoes, then you go public. People can believe that Peter was leading a double-life all this time, that he wasn't Spider-Man's friend, as he said, but Spider-Man himself." Peter watched Otto ramble on about this intricate web of conspiracy and the most amazing part was that he was positive that Otto hadn't taken a breath the entire time he was ranting. But he did have a point, there was a strong possibility that he was made to replace Spider-Man. For what purpose, he had no idea. "-It's GENIUS!!! Machiavellian to the last detail! but we still need to separate. Because we are both priority targets and if they get one they get both, unless we go our separate ways and correspond with each other." He said. He then had his tentacles lift him over to a container. Opening the container he revealed a skin-tight, bright red outfit that looked remarkably like Spider-Man's in design, except the lack of a secondary colour and no web design. "I was working on this all of last night. Was thinking that maybe we could kill Spider-Man and your imposter, then replace him with you, and slip you back into your old life without anyone knowing any better and best of all, we agree to let bygones be bygones and you let me get away with some of my looting, so long as nobody gets hurt." Peter picked it up. It was a solid colour, no blue on it, but it was very well made. The fibers were stretchy and there were a few gadgets built into the mask. "But since that's clearly what they want, that's the last thing we CAN don."

"Why no blue?" Peter asked.

"Eh, the blue around the middle makes Webhead look fat." Otto sighed. "Also, it was 6am when i finished. Want to bust my chops even more?" Peter walked over to Otto and put his arms around him, giving him a hug.

"Thanks, Otto. It's been really weird, but you've always been there for me when i needed you... Even after you went nuts, no offense." He said. Otto wasn't entirely sure how to respond. So, he patted him on the back.

"You're welcome, Pete." He then turned back to his packing. "Right, we're going to need code-names to keep in touch." He said. A tentacle shot towards Peter and jabbed him in the arm with a needle.

"WHAT THE HELL, DOC!?" Peter screamed.

"I need more samples of your blood. More i have, better i can trace it to it's origin with. Maybe figure out if you have some bio-programming to make you flip out and start killing everyone when you hear a code-phrase." Peter rubbed his arm.

"You could have just asked." He grunted.

"No time. Go get cleaned up. I am gone in 13 minutes, 56 seconds. Do not tell me where you are at any time, i don't want to know, i will never tell you where i am unless it's urgent. My alias will be Professor Paul." Peter thought for a second. He then smiled.

"I was just thinking what Uncle Ben would think of... His favourite bible story was Cain and Abel. I'll go by Kaine, since Peter would be the Abel in this story." He said.

"Alright, Kaine." Otto replied. He ran over to his desk and fetched a small, old phone and gave it to him. "Don't make any calls on this. In a few days, i'll text you an IP address to a secure chat room we can use to correspond. Destroy the phone as soon as you have it memorized. And i mean DESTROY. Set fire to it, put it in a blender, drop it in acid. Nothing that could possibly be traced. Do not throw it in a bin, do not throw it in a lake. DESTROY it." He emphasized.

"I will." Kaine promised. He put his arm around Otto for one final hug before Kaine grabbed the suit and went into the back room. Putting it on under his regular clothes. He tried putting the mask on, but his hair wouldn't seem to fit under it. "Damn..." He grunted, before stuffing the mask in his duffle-bag of things. He then saw the suit that he had made himself. Grabbing the hoodie, he looked it over. Might look good over his Spider-Suit that Otto made. Would add the blue that it was desperately missing." He smiled, before stuffing the hoodie in the bag. He saw a the parts of one of Mysterio's VFX bots. "Hey, Otto, mind if i take these VFX bot pieces?" He asked.

"GO AHEAD, I'LL PROBABLY END UP BURNING THEM ANYWAY!" He called from the other room. "4 MINUTES 42 SECONDS!" Kaine stuffed the parts in the box and walked back into the other room to see Otto whistling a merry tune as his tentacles poured tanks of gasoline everywhere. "Go, on, dear boy. Grab a can, start pouring." He laughed. Kaine decided against it. He walked over to the Rhino shaped hole. "Thanks for everything, doc. I'll be in touch." He said. He decided to try his organic webspinners. Shooting into the air, they felt natural, although he was curious to find out how the hell his own body was able to produce them and, seemingly, in the same formula as his as well. He needed to find out more. But first, he would need to figure out HOW to hunt down C.A.D.M.U.S. What would he need to do so? First, he needed an online connection that didn't require him to sit down at the library... His old laptop that he used to slice his way into Oscorp to push through his internship. He had held onto it for sentimental reasons. It was probably in his... Peter's new appartment. A quick snoop around and nobody need be the wiser. First stop, Broadway.


	5. Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaine comes face to face with several people that, had no idea he was even gone.

Kaine had made his way over to Broadway and watched the apartment from a rooftop across the street, he had a CB Radio at his side and was listening in for any word of Spider-Man. "15 Adam to Dispatch, we have a 10-88, requesting bird." A few seconds later, he heard 15 ADAM, CONFIRMED 10-100, REQUESTING BACK-UP!" Kaine got low, 10-100 was call-sign for super-powered suspects. "15 Adam, Cancel support, 10-13-Spider." Things had changed since he had left... Been created... But 10-13 was officer's assisting, a 10-13-something was a superhero assisting. He assumed Spider was Peter. He smiled and pulled himself up, web-slinging over to the roof of the apartment and walking over to the rusted metal door. He quickly made his way inside and began to descend the stairs. 24-B, 24-A, 23-B, 23-A, 22-B, 22-A, 21-B. He sighed, before trying the door, locked. Good, that meant no-one was home. MJ was probably at her job. He had 2 options here... Either break in and make it look like a robbery, meaning that he could take a few things, which would give him money to get away from here... But that might leave evidence that he was there. Tracable evidence... Wait, he didn't need to worry about leaving evidence, anything that he left would look like Peters. Even Peter wasn't Sherlock enough to find his own DNA and assume it was a clone. He breathed heavily, before grabbing the handle, getting ready to break it... No, he couldn't do it, it wasn't fair to Peter. Was he being selfless or selfish doing that? It was too early in the morning for philosophical debates with himself. He rolled his eyes and tried to figure out what to do... Maybe... He looked under the mat to see a key. "Thank you for the tip, May." He laughed, picking up the key and putting it in the lock, he turned it, opening the door and slipping in.

This place was modest, a lot better than he was hoping, but then, if both Peter and MJ were working, then maybe they had a decent income. His job at the Bugle was great because he could do the field work at the same time that he was doing superhero work. Maybe MJ's job was something that was good enough to support both of them. He looked around and saw plenty of framed newspaper clippings of himself dressed as Spider-Man. He didn't particularly care for them, but he suspected they were to keep up appearances. After all, what kind of photographer doesn't frame their best work? He laughed a little as he walked into the sitting area. This place was small, but it was really nice. He let a small tear roll down his cheek as the realization that this was everything he had ever wanted and now having it was, literally, impossible. He sniffled back. He wasn't usually this emotional... Then again, he wasn't usually a clone that had been made by some shady government organization. Things were weird and the only people in his life that were making sense were the psychopaths that he beat up for a living. He shook his head as he checked out several doors in the house. The bathroom, the kitchen... Then he went through to the bedroom and stood for a second... This is where he and MJ had no doubt... Well, he wasn't gonna find that computer by wondering about what might have been. Walking over to the closet, he opened it and looked through Peter's clothes, before seeing that telltale panel in the back. It was something that he used when he lived with May to keep his stuff hidden from her. He pulled the panel down and looked inside. A few different suits and... A new laptop... Damn... There was no way he'd be able to take it without Peter knowing. "Damn..." He grunted, when suddenly his Spider-Senses blared an alarm as he instinctively jumped up to the ceiling and stuck to it, watching the darts from a stun-gun hit the closet. Tracing the darts back to the source, he saw who was holding the gun. Well... Things just got even more difficult.

"ALRIGHT, SCUMBAG, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" she called. Kaine stood there staring at her as she let the stungun drop. "Peter?" She asked, looking straight into his eyes. Kaine stared back and he dropped to the floor. "What happened to you?" Kaine looked her over. Time hadn't changed her much... Well, maybe her hips were a little bigger... But that was to be expected.

"MJ..." He stared into those beautiful baby-blue eyes and opened his mouth, as he dropped down and slowly walked towards her. "I..."

"What happened?" She asked. Kaine tried to speak, but as he opened his mouth again, he then broke down and fell into her arms crying. "WOW, PETE!" She cried. "Come on, big guy. Tell MJ all about it." She sat him down on the bed as he slowly calmed himself. Kaine was getting annoyed at this, being so damn emotional at a time like this. He prided himself on being sensitive, but this was getting ridiculous.

"Where to start?" He asked, before beinging to tell her the whole story. He had always been honest with Mary-Jane, she was the first person he had told he was Spider-Man. He hadn't even told Gwen when they were going out. As he opened the floodgates on the last 96 hours of his life as he knew it, Mary-Jane sat staring at him, only stopping him once or twice to ask a question, but otherwise just listening through. As he finished, the two of them sat silent for a few minutes, Kaine desperately wanted her to say something... Anything... After another 2 minutes, she stood up and nodded to herself as she seemed to have figured out everything.

"Alright, so you aren't Chameleon, he can't do the wall-crawling thing." She began. "You have a physical presence so you aren't one of Mysterio's holograms, you know everything about me and Peter, so you aren't some delusional nutjob." She looked at him. "So the most logical explaination is that you are exactly who you say you are. Alright, Kaine, Let's go tell Pete, we'll track down these guys an-" Kaine stood up.

"NO!" He yelled. "We can't tell Peter. He's got enough on his plate already. Being Spider-Man is hard enough and he's got you and his job. I will deal with this on my own." As Mary-Jane opened her mouth, Kaine put a finger up to it. "All Peter has ever wanted was to be the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and to have you as a loving wife. I don't want to spoil that for him with this Clone stuff." Kaine sighed. Mary-Jane opened her mouth to argue with him, but saw the resolution in his eyes.

"You're not gonna budge on this are you?" She asked.

"Not even an inch. If I can't have this life, then i'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure that one of me gets it." He stated.

"Well, there goes my greatest marital fantasy..." Mary-Jane sighed.

"So, do you know where Peter's old Laptop is?" He asked.

"Sure, it's at May's house." Mary-Jane replied. "He left it there with a bunch of his old stuff in a safe-box in case bad guys ever take down this place."

"Makes sense, can you go get it?" He asked. "May's not going to let me in the house looking like this." He grabbed his long hair and beard and gave it a few tugs.

"Damn..." Mary-Jane sighed. "I can't. Because if i do, you know how much of a worrywart she is. She'll phone Peter to make sure i gave it to him safely. Maybe i could ask Peter to go- No then he'd know something was up." She then walked over to one of the chests of drawers and rummaged through before pulling out a set of clippers and scissors.

"NO!" Kaine pointed at her. "I REMEMBER WHAT YOU DID TO PHOEBE!" He laughed.

"PETER, I WAS 5 YEARS OLD AND SHE WAS A HAMSTER!" She laughed then grimaced. "Sorry, Kaine..." She corrected herself.

"And she looked ridiculous." Kaine crossed his arms. She stared at him with a look of evil intent.

"Hey, i do Peter's hair and he looks fine." She replied. "I took a few night-classes. Peter was spending ridiculous money on getting his hair done regularly. So i thought i'd save us some." Kaine looked at her.

"Alright, Sweeney, I trust you." He said, before removing his coat and tee-shirt. Mary-Jane immediately approached him.

"Ooooh." she grinned. "You are bigger than Peter." She poked one of his biceps. "Yup, I mean, Peter's muscles are nice and all, but yours. Damn, was that test tube filled with protein-shake?" She asked. Kaine hadn't really had a frame of reference before. He was noticably more buff than he was before. But he had just put that down to his older age. "Maybe they were trying to improve on you?" She asked. She then shook her head. "DOWN GIRL!" She laughed at herself. "Sit down and let's get started." She ordered, pulling the stool out from under her make-up desk. Kaine did so.

"Alright, Phoebe... I'm coming to see you." Kaine sighed. As MJ began her cutting, she looked at him a little closer. "So... Why Kaine?" She asked.

"Uncle Ben's favourite story from the bible, Cain and Abel. Pete is the Abel of this story, since i'm pretty sure i was made to kill him." He replied.

"Sorry, but the name is... Terrible. It's just so... Dark and broody..." She growled in a mocking gravelly voice. "I'm Kaine and i'm a monster." She continued. "Plus, not exactly inconspicuous. You are going to need a nice, normal, forgettable name." She said, cutting off a few more scraggly locks.

"Look, it was a code-name and something we had to come up with quickly, what would you suggest?" Kaine asked.

"Well, you were wondering what Ben would do? Why not Ben?" She asked. Kaine sat for a second and thought.

"Well... You have me there." He sighed. "Yeah, Ben... Reilly." He smiled. "That was May's last name before marrying him."

"Well, nice to meet you, Ben Reilly. Now, sit perfectly still." MJ replied.

Ben approached the front door of Aunt May's house. It seemed like only last week he had been here for Sunday dinner. He looked just like the photo of him and MJ at Disneyland from last year. As he approached the front door, he stood there, nervously staring it, like he was Ebeneezer Scrooge and the door nob was about to turn into Jacob Marley and attack him. As he raised his hand to knock at the door, when suddenly it opened by itself. He then saw Aunt May stood there. She was looking older. Why wouldn't she? It was 7 years. She would be in her mid 60's now. Her curly brown hair that had been graying was now completely grey and he could see her hair thinning. She wore a blue cardigan with a white shirt under it and had her wheeled basket with her. She was taken aback by him being there. "PETER?" She gasped. "You scared the devil out of me. I'm a little old for you to be sneaking up on." She sighed. Peter was prepared for this moment, he was positive that he'd hugged it all out with MJ... But stood in front of her, knowing full well that this might be the last time he see's her... It was hard not to get emotional. He held it back though.

"Hey, May. I need a little help..." He said. "I left my old laptop in my room. I just need to quickly come in and grab it." He smiled. May nodded.

"Well, make it quick, i'm on my way to the market." She smiled. Ben walked past her and through the house. He had grown up in this house and could still hear the echo's of the past. The living room where he, Harry, Gwen and MJ had had their first sleep-over. He and Harry had drawn on MJ in her sleep but were stopped when Gwen woke up. Funniest thing ever. The kitchen that he remembered Uncle Ben cleaning up his wounds after he fell down a flight of stairs on his first bike. Heading up the stairs, he looked around. He remembered charging around the halls with the family dog, Sandwich. Heading into his old room, he saw smiled as it was still pristene. Several of his old science trophy's. He walked over to his closet and opened it. A few things that hadn't moved since his own memories of him moving them. But there was that special compartment right at the back. Opening it, he saw a bunch of his old Spider-Man gear. Including... That Luchador costume... He picked it out and looked at it, as well as the poster they put up for him "Come see La Araña-Humana fight the terrifying The Nacho Man, Sandy Ravage!" He smiled at it. That was his first use of his powers. 3 months as a luchador for a professional wrestling company. Ravage had really taken him under his wing and helped him break into the industry and was the first person he ever told that he was Spider-Man, helping him really hone his fighting prowess. It was Ravage that convinced him to leave the Wrestling business, so as not to arouse suspicion from people seeing Spider-Man using all of Araña-Humana's moves. People think Wrestling is all fake, but it was a fine art in not hurting each other, meaning that the easiest way to learn how to not hurt them was to learn how to hurt them and just not do that. Ravage was the Mickey to his Rocky and much like Mickey, he had died of a Heart-Attack way before his time. There it was, the old Laptop. He quickly blew the dust off of it before picking it up and opening the lid. Looked in good enough condition. He held down the power button for a few seconds, but nothing happened. Proabably needed charging. He had only just grabbed the charger when he heard May shouting up to him.

"PETER, THE BUS IS IN 10 MINUTES, I NEED TO GO!" Ben stuffed it in his bag and made his way down the stairs As he walked to the front door, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. This might be the last time he would talk to her. Of course, she'd never realize this. But... One more day... Maybe just one last day to spend as Peter... As he stood there trying to figure out his feelings between what he wanted to do and what he should do, he heard her say "Of course, i'll never say no to spending time with you." and then he realized that he had just said to her.

"Tell you what, i don't need to be at work today, i'll come with you." It was then that Ben realized the total and utter mistake that he had made. Immediately his head was flooded with the 20 billion ways this could go wrong. But as soon as she took his hand, those fears melted away and he was a 5 year old, saluting to Uncle Ben and promising to protect his aunt from any badguys that might come after her. He smiled and they began making their way to the bus stop.


End file.
